In a proving, healthy people are given pharmacologically active doses of a substance and the symptoms they develop are observed.  Lists of symptoms have been recorded by Hahnemann and other Homeopaths in homeopathic materia medica.  Homeopaths consult the materia medica to look for substances that produce symptoms that are similar to those found in the patient.  Such a substance, when greatly diluted and "dynamized," is believed to be useful for the treatment of the patients affliction. 

 

Click here to see the proving of a nosode prepared from the blood of a man diagnosed as having acquired immune deficiency syndrome who subsequently died.